The Spirit Convicts, We Judge

Rom 2:1-4

2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?

The world accuses us of being intolerant and sometimes rightly so.  It is not that we should tolerate sin, because God makes it clear what is right and what is wrong.  It is that we lose focus and end up pointing fingers at the sinner.  Paul is making sure that the Romans understand that anytime you get self-righteous and start pointing fingers, we must be completely above reproach ourselves.  Which one of us can say without a doubt that day in and day out we are living sinless lives?  Paul, like Jesus, is reminding us that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones, or he who is without sin may cast the first stone.  No, let us remember the kind of love that God has shown us.  Let us show that same kindness, tolerance and patience to others that God might lead them to repentance.  After all, most people are acutely aware of their sin.  What they need is a way out of their sin, so that they might enter into a relationship with Jesus.  Let’s remember that Paul started out by talking about a righteousness that comes from God.  When God judges us it is based on truth and not on perception.  God sees what is in the heart and judges us based on that.

5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God "will give to each person according to what he has done."   7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

Paul started out by complimenting their faith in the midst of the most corrupt and debased population of the day.  First he built them up and now he wants to make sure that they do not swell up with pride and think themselves better than those around them.  It is not about how we compare to others that make us better of worse, but how we conduct ourselves in our relationship with God.  He wants to make sure that they don’t become like the Pharisees who set themselves up as judges of behavior and thus gave themselves power over others.  I don’t see the gift of judgment anywhere in the NT. 

12-16

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

In the last sentence of the previous section, Paul lays the foundation for this next section.  Favoritism is something that the Roman would have understood as being part of life.  If you were a citizen of Rome you enjoyed certain privileges.  Paul knew this because he himself was a Roman citizen and because he was an educated man.  People who belonged to the senate in Rome were exempt from many of the laws and consequences of those laws.  In India, although it is officially outlawed there is a cast system.  If you are lower cast you are called unclean and you have virtually no rights.  If you are upper cast you enjoy a life of privilege and you are allowed to treat lower cast people with contempt.  In case you think we don’t have that, look at how star players on sports’ teams are treated as opposed to your run of the mill players.  Or look at the penalties for white collar crime as opposed to other kinds of crimes.